Word: barnetts
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Prior to the year 1898 life in Oklahoma was not complex for Jackson Barnett, a Creek Indian. He could neither read nor write, but he easily satisfied his humble needs by laboring occasionally for 50c a day. In 1898 the U. S. Government allotted to him 160 acres of land. That was good, he thought?a place all his own for his shack?plenty of space for roaming?maybe there was a little easy money in the land, in spite of its rocks and sterile soil...
...discovered on Mr. Barnett's land. He could not help it, but he soon found himself in possession of an odd million dollars. Life took on new aspects. A number of people became interested in Mr. Barnett. A white lady, one Anna Laura Lowe, mar ried him in Oklahoma and again in Missouri to tie up the bargain tightly. She persuaded him to give her $550,000 (of which her lawyer received...
Other people urged Mr. Barnett to do kindly deeds with his money when they found that he was careless about putting his thumb print on pieces of paper. There is an undated letter now in the possession of the Department of the Interior, bearing Mr. Barnett's thumb print, which proposed to donate $1,000,000 for a hospital in Henryetta, Okla. Also, Mr. Barnett's benevolent thumb gave $550,000 to the American Baptist Home Mission Society for the benefit of poor Indians...
Last week a long fight in the courts, begun by Mr. Barnett and his onetime guardian, Elmer S. Bailey, was terminated by Judge John C. Knox of the U. S. District Court of New York. On the ground that Mr. Barnett was and is incompetent to handle his fortune, Judge Knox ruled that the gifts to Mr. Barnett's wife and to the Baptists were null & void, that his fortune must be turned over to the Secretary of the Interior for management. Said Judge Knox: "He [Mr. Barnett] is a harmless, kindly, mentally undeveloped man, who was extremely bored...
...Chicago, Capt. Barnett W. Harris of the Zoological Society and Field Museum, exhibited as part of his equipment for a collecting trip in Borneo and Java, some rifle cartridges, invented by himself, to shoot animals unconscious instead of dead. The bullets contained a chemical which, upon entering an animal's blood stream, would anesthetize. It would presumably be easier to avoid than to hit the animal's vital spots. Collector Harris proposed to put gorillas and orang-outangs to sleep at long range, bring them home alive...